Taking the Stage: Irish Writers Centre Young Delegates & Crescent Writers Read

New voices, new work: Join us for an afternoon of readings from the Festival’s Young Writer Delegates, a programme led by the Irish Writers Centre, and participants from The Crescent’s year-round programme of Courses and Workshops. 

Irish Writers Centre (IWC) Young Delegates Present: 

Let’s welcome IWC Delegates to the stage! These four writers have spent the Belfast Book Festival creating and learning, and will share some of the creative work developed with their mentor, Mícheál McCann.

Belfast Book Festival are pleased to launch a new partnership with the Irish Writers Centre as part of their IWC Young Writer Delegates Programme. During the festival period, four selected writers between the ages of 18 and 26 will be welcomed to The Festival - attending a variety of events. Mícheál McCann, the YWD's writer-mentor, will lead the writers in a series of workshops as well as provide guidance in succeeding in and enjoying life as a writer. See below the bios of this year's delegates.

Crescent Writers Read

Come along and hear a selection of the amazing range of work that participants produce throughout the year at our Creative Writing classes in The Crescent. Both first time and seasoned writers, working across all genres, will share and read their work at this informal gathering. 

Irish Writer Centre Young Delegates: 

Cian Dunne has recently graduated from a degree in English Literature and Russian at Trinity College Dublin. In his final year, he edited the Trinity Journal of Literary Translation, to which he has also contributed his own translations of poems in Russian and Irish. Most recently, he has had short fiction and poetry published by Sonder Magazine and Aimsir Press. He grew up in Westport, Co. Mayo, where he still lives for and in the moment. From September, he hopes to pursue the MA Translation at Queen’s University Belfast.  

Fatoumata Gandega is a French creative writer and poet. With a focus on amplifying the voices of marginalized communities and shedding light on important societal issues. Fatoumata’s work entails expressing her personal experiences, emotions and perspectives through poetry on complex themes such as identity, power and societal expectations. Her passion for creative expression extends beyond writing, as she enjoys multidisciplinary forms of art including fashion, dance and theatre. Her work will be featured in Corporeal Lit Mag.

Caleb McKeever is a 21-year-old student and autistic writer from County Monaghan. His genre of choice is fantasy, but he is exploring many other genres and forms of writing through his studies in Writing and Literature at Sligo ATU. Being autistic, he experiences the world a little more intensely than others, which adds another dimension to his writing. During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, he took part in an online storytelling workshop led by writer and storyteller Liz Weir. This opened his mind to the art of storytelling, drawing on both his love for writing and for acting. He has participated in local and international storytelling sessions and festivals.

Sarah McMahon is from Belfast, and a final year Software Engineering student at Queen’s University. She has always been deeply passionate about writing, especially poetry and fiction, and has previously been a member of Women Aloud and has read her poetry at events across Ireland. Her work consists of her own experiences and the experiences she has seen around her of girls growing up, and attempt to make sense of the world.